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Meet the mystery editor behind most of the Wikipedia pages on Korea

When outsiders think of Korea, the image that comes to mind is often limited to BTS, "Squid Game" or North Korea. But behind those snapshots are millions of ordinary Koreans, and much of their history and culture remains invisible online. A Korean American Wikipedian who has spent years editing the world’s largest online encyclopedia says too much of what global readers find about Korea is biased, incomplete or simply missing — and he has made it his mission to change that. Through Wikipedia, he
Oct. 7, 2025 - 16:00:00
Hashtag Korea
[Life in Korea] Double life of Anthony King: dancer and director in Seoul

Anthony King, 33, is a US-born filmmaker and professional dancer based in Korea, but his trajectory began far from studio lights: middle-school sports, anime music videos and an obsession over the arcade rhythm game, Dance Dance Revolution. A friend’s demonstration of a break dancing move called the “turtle stall” lit the fuse. “He showed me that, and I thought it was the most impressive thing in the world,” King said. Little did he know this would be the beginning of a chapter that would take h
Sept. 22, 2025 - 13:56:37
Hashtag Korea
How a childhood rebel became Korea’s most iconic public campaigner

When other children sang and danced during performance at kindergarten, 5-year-old Yi Je-seok lay flat on the floor. “I wasn’t in the mood,” Yi said. “You need a certain spark to dance. I just didn’t feel it that day. I know dancing regardless of how you feel is important in a group-oriented society. But I just couldn’t do it.” His mother was mortified and took him home. But for Yi — better known today as Jeski — it marked the beginning of a lifelong refusal to conform. A rebel from the start, h
Aug. 20, 2025 - 09:00:00
Hashtag Korea
Tailoring weddings for queer couples that law shuns

In South Korea, where marriage is legally defined as a union between a man and a woman, same-sex weddings have existed only in the stories of a few trailblazing couples. Among them are filmmaker Kim Jho Gwang-soo and his partner Kim Sung-hwan, the first openly gay couple known to have held a wedding ceremony in South Korea in 2013. A decade on, such weddings are no longer taboo or something only a few brave outliers dare to pursue. They've now become a viable option for many same-sex couples, al
July 30, 2025 - 12:29:44
Culture
Living fully in a land of slim expectations

Three years ago, author Erin Zhurkin moved to South Korea, and her fictional heroine came with her. Abby Allerton, the plus-size influencer at the heart of “Plus Size in Paris”, had already taken on Parisian fashion and cultural expectations in the first book. Now, in a Seoul-set sequel currently in the works, she’s about to face an entirely different set of beauty standards. The push for a Korean story didn’t come from publishers or agents, she said. It came from Korean readers. “It’s a sequel,
June 18, 2025 - 10:02:44
Social Affairs
With buoy and camera, millennial diver redefines life as Jeju 'haenyeo'

For centuries, women on South Korea's Jeju Island have dived deep into the sea to harvest seafood to provide for their families. Called "haenyeo," which literally means “sea women,” they rely solely on breath-holding techniques, diving as deep as 10 meters and staying underwater for up to two minutes, without the aid of breathing equipment. Their gear is minimal: a simple diving mask, lead weights around the waist to help them descend and a buoy called a "tewak" — a basketball-sized float with a
May 28, 2025 - 09:11:00
Hashtag Korea
For 15 years, Apple’s Find My app didn’t work in South Korea. This guy changed that

Apple is not the type of company that explains itself. It doesn’t respond to petitions. And it almost never makes country-specific feature changes, especially not for one person. Except in South Korea, where that’s exactly what happened recently. For over 15 years, one of Apple’s most critical device-tracking features, called Find My, was quietly and almost entirely disabled in South Korea. Millions of Korean users owned iPhones, AirPods and AirTags that were, in practice, untrackable if lost or
May 21, 2025 - 08:30:00
Culture
The AI artist who refuses to lose himself

When one introduces oneself as an “AI artist,” the question almost always follows: Who is the true creator -- the machine or the human behind it? The recent boom in AI-generated images, particularly those mimicking the look of Studio Ghibli, has made this question become even more widely asked. Yoon Seok-kwan, an "AI artist" who works under the pseudonym Keepkwan, shares this concern. While he believes originality is still possible when working with AI, he worries that much of what is being prod
May 14, 2025 - 10:29:57
People
'Smile at me': Cancer-fighting senior influencer inspires with strength, grace

Have you ever thought about whether you'd get cancer? We all know someone who has. But many of us walk through life unprepared. Choi Seung-ih, a 59-year-old senior model, was no different. "Never,” she said when asked if the thought had ever crossed her mind. “There was no family history. I exercised regularly. I even trained for a body profile photoshoot. I was strict with my diet. I thought I’d never get cancer. Then, about a year ago, Choi was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. Her wor
May 5, 2025 - 16:00:00
Culture
How this 20-year-old landed on J-Hope’s project

If you’re a BTS fan, you might recall the floating house in J-Hope’s recent music video, “Sweet Dreams (Feat. Miguel).” That surreal vision wasn't crafted by a veteran artist with decades of experience, but by Kim Onew, a 20-year-old 3D visual effects artist already making waves in the K-pop industry. Kim has already built an impressive resume at a young age. In addition to J-Hope, he’s created visuals for aespa, NewJeans and Stray Kids. His path is all the more remarkable in South Korea, where
April 23, 2025 - 09:37:39
People
She reclaimed her mornings and built a brand to help others do the same

Early-bird Youn Jin proved that the quietest hours can be the most impactful At 4 a.m., when most of New York was still asleep, Youn Jin was already awake. She blogged. She practiced yoga. She made breakfast. By the time her coworkers shuffled into the office, she already had accomplished a lot. Early mornings have long been considered a secret weapon of successful people, and stories like Youn’s might seem familiar — until you hear what happened next. Her mornings didn’t just set the tone for h
April 2, 2025 - 11:32:04
Hashtag Korea
How a paralyzed activist wrote a master’s thesis with half a million blinks—and rewired his world

For disability activist Jang Ik-sun, hope isn't just a feeling — it’s the eye-tracking software he has mastered to draft policy proposals, the half-million blinks that earned him a master’s degree, and the gaming system he engineered to keep playing despite being almost completely paralyzed GWANGJU --- Jang Ik-sun wrote his master’s thesis one blink at a time. About half a million times, to be exact. For most people, blinking is an unconscious act — something they do effortlessly 20,000 times a
March 29, 2025 - 16:00:00
Hashtag Korea
When calligrapher has an entrepreneurial spirit

From traditional 'seoye' to commercial branding, Lee Sang-hyun transforms calligraphy into modern art form As a child, Lee Sang-hyun had no interest in sitting down and holding a pen. At the age of 11, his mother, hoping to nurture focus and discipline in him, enrolled him in an after-school program that teaches “seoye,” or traditional calligraphy. Instead of grabbing a pen, he spent his days grinding an inkstick on a slab to make ink. When the teacher was not looking, he would scribble on the w
March 19, 2025 - 10:04:38
Hashtag Korea
Real-life version of 'Lovely Runner' couple melts millions of hearts

Kim Hye-mi, Samsung IT developer with disability, shares TV drama-like love story with colleague, viral wedding performance In June last year, a South Korean couple’s wedding video went viral as a real-life version of a love story that had just aired in the hit TV drama “Lovely Runner.” In the video, the groom shields his bride, who uses a wheelchair, with a yellow umbrella after serenading her, re-creating one of the most memorable scenes from the drama series. "I never expected the video to bl
Feb. 26, 2025 - 10:46:16
Hashtag Korea
How much can a pencil sharpener mean to its owner?

More than you’d expect, says Kim Won-rae, warranty service provider of Hi Shapa sharpeners ICHEON, Gyeonggi Province — How much can a pencil sharpener mean to its owner? In Kim Won-rae’s world, it means a lot. At his workshop in Icheon, outside Seoul, where he fixes sharpeners as old as 30-plus years, Kim has every reason to believe so. As the sole warranty service provider for TiTi’s Hi Shapa pencil sharpeners, Kim keeps a binder full of heartfelt letters — cherished memories from users sent al
Feb. 19, 2025 - 10:07:03